#unschooled

I'm almost an adult and I've never been to middle or highschool, never a school dance or prom(prom!!!!!), never had a real crush or a first kiss, I WANT to go out and do dumb shit after school with a gaggle of teenage friends, get into trouble, something outside of and unrelated to my house or family or online

I want to freak out over tests and being late to class and petty drama, worry about real life, something that isnt just in my head, have a real life at all, have any kind of reason, do things cause I want to, not to just make it through the day.

The Courage of Peter and John

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. — Acts 4:13 | New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide. Cross References: Exodus 4:10-12; Psalm 8:2; Psalm 119:99-100; Jeremiah 1:6-9; Matthew 10:19-20; Matthew 11:25; Luke 21:15; John 7:15; John 15:18-21; 1 Corinthians 1:27; 1 Corinthians 2:4-5; 2 Corinthians 3:5-6; 2 Corinthians 4:7; Philippians 1:28; 1 Peter 3:15

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And as someone who went to a radical "unschooling center" and was homeschooled growing up-- this is definitely not how this is supposed to work. You're supposed to foster a bond with your kids, read to them, get them interested enough in reading to get them to want to learn to read, and then help them learn with the materials they're interested in. Allowing the children's interests to shape the curriculum. Classes are supposed to be AVAILABLE without coercion. I turned out really well, I'm a lifelong reader, a passionate researcher, and I learned very much what I love and what I don't. I think this idea of unschooling is such an utter betrayal of the very radical, very cool idea I grew up with. The idea I grew up with was essentially that children are naturally curious, and that you can engage with them as an active partner in the learning process, and the idea you have to force them to sit there unhappily rather than finding ways to get them interested is a bad way to teach. One thing that helped me with subjects that were difficult or otherwise boring for me, was my dad (who homeschooled me before the unschooling center), was also not naturally gifted in those areas, and learning about them together and trying to work how they worked with my dad (who is a passionately curious man) to build a real understanding of concepts tailored to our particular weird brains, rather than any kind of punishing rote learning. We'd discuss ways of thinking about math problems, and ways of thinking about the process of for example long division or fractions that are still useful to me to this day. It also felt good because he felt school had not taught him these things well as he had dyscalculia growing up in the 1960s and so the concepts just didn't go in fully the first time, and so working to get a full understanding of them together, really made a difference for me.

I think the most difficult thing was adapting to circumstances where I had to complete any kind of busy work, or had authority figures I couldn't negotiate with, and rules I didn't think made sense.

I feel like the rage-bait tiktoks and what seems to be getting called "unschooling" now are radically different from the Anarchist rooted and deeply practical form of education I experienced.

Also in like 2003 they had a special presentation of trans people and how they're good and fine, and even books on trans bodies there, and like-- I'm sorry, but that was cool as hell.